Chapter 9

NICOLETTE

Darien sat on the ground, knees up, elbows on his knees, hands massaging his head. “Can you not be so loud?” He cringed and looked at me with one eye as if I had been screaming nonstop. He then threaded his fingers through his long hair.

I stopped my frantic pacing to gawk. I couldn’t help it. Such a simple act was so damn sexy. How? I shook off my dazed state and returned to my angry one.

“You think this is loud? You should’ve heard me last time! I’m just trying to understand this!” I glared at him, resentment building. “I’ve been brought to this unknown place against my will—again! This time by a man who just the other night held a blade to my throat!”

He massaged his head again, then looked at me like I was a weed invading his garden. “You better keep that pretty little mouth of yours shut, Nicolette. Unless you want your throat threatened again. Got it?”

He was bluffing.

“I don’t believe you.” I stood tall, pushed my shoulders back, and put my hands on my hips.

He stood slowly and positioned himself squarely in front of me. “Are you sure about that?”

I held my head high and didn’t break eye contact. “I ~am~ sure.”

He stepped toward me until he was an arm’s length away. His body heat radiated across the gap.

“Woman.” He grabbed both sides of his suit jacket and flared it open, revealing the tailored white shirt beneath and wafting his gorgeous scent my way, then put his hands on his hips. “I know a hundred ways to assault your throat without ever using a blade.”

He then grabbed his belt buckle with both hands and adjusted its position, drawing my attention down.

I understood his meaning, and chills gathered up my nape. I couldn’t force my eyes to look away. ~Don’t go there, Nikki. Don’t you go there. ~But it was too late.

I saw myself get on my knees, undo his buckle, unzip his trousers, and open my mouth for his—~No!~ I shook the thoughts away, literally shaking my head, and saw he was looking at me, a wide smug smile plastered on his face.

He knew he’d won.

I huffed and dropped my arms to my sides, letting my back slouch slightly. Why was this happening to me? I knew he wasn’t a good, kind man. Why was I willing to let my mind go to these places with him?

And why was I brought to this world—again? Fate must have really hated me. And I really hated that mirror. “So what now?”

“Now,” he said, pointing to a clear path that lay behind him, “we walk.”

LUCIEN

“Are we in your kingdom?” she asked as we set off. “It looks different.”

“No.” My head still throbbed from the unexpected travel to this world, which hadn’t happened before, and I hoped this wasn’t going to be an interrogation.

“Thought so. What’s the name of your kingdom?”

“Zaxonia.” I longed for a head massage. My servants gave the best ones.

“Is it far from here?”

“Yes.” ~Unfortunately~. But the journey would give me time with her. Time to ask her more questions.

“So where are we now?”

I glanced around. There was a faint neon-blue glow all around.

“It looks like we are in the kingdom of Krimea. The blue leaves, blue water, and the star of Judeza there are proof enough.”

I pointed to a tree, the small yet fast-flowing river beside us, and then the sky. The star was as bright and rainbow colored as I remembered it to be.

We walked in welcomed silence for a few moments, then she said, “The water is so beautiful in this world. But if your water is swirly silver and this is glowing blue, are they different somehow? Like salt and fresh?”

Her voice grew quieter as she spoke, and I realized she had stopped moving. I turned around to see her beside the rushing water, staring at it.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. “Yes, it is beautiful, and no there is no difference. You act like you have never seen water before.” My patience was growing thin.

She glared at me. “I’m sorry for asking questions about ~glowing water~, Mr. Ozric.”

I cringed upon hearing that name. It didn’t sound as powerful and majestic here in my realm. I looked at the ground and kicked at the grass. It was time to tell her my true name.

“Nicolette, when we are here, call me Lucie—”

A splash sounded from her direction and I whipped my head toward it. She was gone!

“Hey!” I ran to the river’s edge, expecting to see her reemerge from the water downstream. “Son of a… What are you doing?” I smiled. I couldn’t contain my amusement.

She was standing in the river, water flowing just below her waist. She was lucky not to have broken her legs, but her clothes were effectively drenched, as were the tips of her hair, and the splashes of water on her face made it look like she was crying.

“Why?” she said, her voice barely audible above the sound of the river. She stared at the water and then searched around wildly as if she had lost something. “Why isn’t it working?”

My amusement became confusion. “~What~ is not working?”

“The water! It’s supposed to transport me back home!”

~Ah. That explains the water question. ~I sighed and shook my head. “That is not how it works.”

“Then explain!” She eyed me like a queen would an incompetent subject. “The fact that you made a business empire in my world, lived there, learned my language—I’m pretty sure you know how it works.”

I offered her my hand and easily pulled her back onto land. She began wringing out her clothes and flapping her shirt. Her white shirt. I wasn’t sure if it was more or less distracting that she wore a flesh-colored brassiere. She had the perfect breasts for sucking.

“Next time you jump into the water, make sure to get naked first.” I took my jacket off and handed it to her. “It will spare me the effort of taking my own clothes off.”

“Oh, you’d definitely like that.” She took it and put it on. “Thank you.” She squeezed her hair one last time, looked at me, and nodded. “I’m ready. Let’s keep going. But not too fast. I lost my shoes in the river.”

When we got back on the path, I began to tell her about the mirror.

“While I do not know what magic was used to make it, who made it, or how it was made, I do know the mirror was made in this world and acts as an instant portal between our worlds.

“It was created with a unique silver only found in Zaxonia—the silver in the water and in the plants there. The water here does not have it.” I looked at her. “That is why it did not send you home.”

“Shit. I should have known. I’m all wet for nothing.” She looked down at herself and shook her head.

As we continued, my mind went over what had happened. What this woman seemingly could do so easily. How had she brought us here?

In order for me to travel between worlds, I relied on my sorcerer and the pool in the room adjacent to my bedroom. This woman, on the other hand, just needed to touch a mirror—a normal mirror—and could portal to this world.

Then why had it not worked in the river just now when it did last time? Then, it hit me. Because the water was moving too fast! That must have been why! The surface wasn’t reflective.

~Well, that is one less question.~ But there were still so many more. Luckily, we had time.

I slowed a bit so she would walk next to me. So I could look at her without her noticing.

She was slightly hunched over, jacket and arms wrapped tight around her. Then I looked through her clothes, to her breasts underneath that were being pushed up and together by her arms.

They looked so full, so ready to be sucked. I couldn’t look away. Not even when she stopped walking.

“Enjoying the view, Mr. Ozric?”

I stopped too and looked at her face. Her jaw was tense, but her eyes didn’t carry anger. She was loving it.

I decided now was the time to test her boundaries, to see how long she’d play. “Yes, I am.” I looked back down at her chest. “But I have seen more breasts than you could imagine.”

She scoffed. “I bet you have. I bet they all look the same to you now. I bet none of them bring you pleasure.”

“Oh, they ~all~ bring me pleasure.” I took a step closer to her, eyes still on her chest. “Touching…grabbing…licking…sucking…drinking.”

I stepped again, then gently pulled her arms apart, traced my fingers up her arms, and grabbed the lapels of my jacket, lightly pulling her closer.

“The thing is, Nicolette, I’ve grown tired of milk.” I brought my eyes up to hers and gave her my most predatory look. A teaser of what was to come. “I want honey.”

She swallowed hard and looked down.

It seemed I had won again. I prepared my victory smirk for when she would look back up at me, cheeks sure to be fully blushed.

Instead, she grabbed my wrists, pushed my hands away from the lapels, took a step back, and brushed off the jacket as if it were dirty. She then wrapped it and her arms tightly around herself again and looked me dead in the eyes.

“And I want shoes.” She walked past me, bumping my arm as she went, and continued down the path to the Crimean capital.

No smirk found my lips. I was stunned silent, watching her go, until she stopped and turned around.

“Aren’t you coming?”

I followed her and watched as the wind blew her hair, occasionally sending sweet scents my way. This was going to be a long walk.

***

“How much farther?” she whined from behind me.

I sighed. Not far ahead was a decent-sized encampment. “Not much. Then we can get you out of your clothes.” I looked back at her and smiled.

She stopped and looked at me. “Really?” Her voice was flat, but there was a flicker of a smile before she lowered her head and kept walking.

It was so fun playing with her. “To change. Our clothes are too eye catching, too strange for them. The kingdom of Crimea rarely welcomes visitors. We have to blend in.”

“Good thing we won’t be staying long.” She caught up to me and sniffled. “So then, how far away is Zaxonia from there?”

“Far. But I will get you there.” I looked over at her and smiled. “No need to worry.”

For the first time, she looked at me and gave me a full, beaming smile, one that was brighter than the star of Judeza. “I can’t wait! The moment I see silver water, I’m jumping in and bidding adieu to this world.”

My heart skipped a beat at her words. I had known she would return to her world once she touched a mirror—or maybe any reflective surface—but I hadn’t expected her to be so eager to leave.

My world was beautiful, far more beautiful than her world. Could she not be happy here?

Fortunately, she still thought she needed to touch Zaxonian silver to create a portal, and I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her otherwise. Only I knew that the mirrors in the elevator were made on Earth from common materials.

So, I decided I wasn’t going to let her see any mirrors for the duration of her indefinite stay here in my realm. Better yet, I was going to break all the mirrors and steer her away from any reflective surface.

~Or, you could make her ~want~ to stay~, something said in the back of my mind. Maybe it was time to open up.

“Lucien,” I said.

“Huh?” she asked.

“My name. Call me that while we are here.” I stopped walking and faced her, wanting to see her expression, but I quickly grew concerned at what I saw.

Her lips were blue, and she was shivering heavily.

~Fuck. ~“Nicolette, you are freezing! We need to get you warm. Here, let me carry you.” I picked her up into my arms. She was so light. “Next time tell me when something is wrong, or you are going to get it.” I masked my concern with anger.

Her head drooped against my chest and her eyes closed. “I told you before, I don’t believe you.” The last words were barely a whisper.

I quickened my pace to the camp while channeling my body warmth into her.

She had offered no resistance to my carrying her, and that had made me happy. At first. But as we neared the gates of the camp, a thought dawned upon me.

~No one has ever resisted me. Not for long, anyway. Except her. Have I finally found an equal? ~